Magnificent dark ink forms a lurid summer landscape on this scroll by Irie Shikai enclosed in the original signed wooden box dated the 4th month of 1922. Ink on paper in a white cloth border with dark wood rollers. It is 54.5 x 195 cm (21-1/2 x 76-3/4 inches).
Irie Shikai was born in Fukuoka prefecture in 1862, the son of an upper level samurai retainer. He studied Nanga and Chinese style painting under Yoshitsugu Haizan and Daiju Ekizan among others. Eschewing the contemporary trend to exhibit and paint for the major National Juried exhibitions, he remained outside the mainstream. For more on this artist see Literati Modern, Bunjinga from late Edo to 20th century Japan, Honolulu, 2008.
